President Yoweri Museveni and his wife Mrs. Janet Museveni last evening joined family members and friends of former Premier, Professor Apolo Nsibambi, who passed on yesterday at his home in Bulange-Mengo of Rubaga Division in Kampala District.
The former Premier, aged 78 years, succumbed to a combination of cancer of bones and diabetes. He served as Prime Minister from April 1999 to 2011. He was an education icon and first non-Head of State Chancellor of Makerere University, a position he held from October 2003 to October 2007.
Addressing mourners, President Museveni said that Uganda had been very peaceful for good period of time because of having people with different backgrounds ranging from the academia, like the late Professor Nsibambi, wananchi and the bush war veterans.
He expressed profound sadness that Professor Nsibambi had died at an early age. He also praised him for his love for the Kingdom of Buganda adding that “his death is too early for us as the country,'' he observed.
Mr. Museveni thanked the widow, Mrs. Esther Nsibambi for being a caring woman who looked after her late husband till his death.
The First Lady, Janet Museveni, who is also the Minister for Education and on her part noted that the late Professor Nsibambi has left a legacy that should be emulated by all Ugandans. She described his passing on as painful not only to the family but the entire country.
''I must say that the death of Nsibambi is very painful not only to the family but the entire country,” she said.
The family Spokesman, Mr. Geoffrey Zziwa, thanked President Museveni and the First Lady for sparing their time to join them in mourning the fallen leader.
